


Writings On The Walls

by ghost_like



Series: 31 Days of Halloween 2k18 [15]
Category: VIXX
Genre: Fluff and Horror, M/M, Psychological Horror, Urban Exploration, Wonshik being a supportive boyfriend yet again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-03 04:07:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16318850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghost_like/pseuds/ghost_like
Summary: Urban exploration was not for everyone, and that was fact - Hongbin had, at that point, been to all kinds of places, from abandoned factories, to old warehouses, to empty hospitals and doomed hotels.





	Writings On The Walls

**Author's Note:**

> yeah... i dropped the ball yesterday because i was Unwell, so today i'll post two prompts. the second will come later, once i write it.
> 
> the prompt was "abandoned house"
> 
> enjoy!♡

“We are _not_ going in there,” Wonshik said, staring at the residence before them in horror and disbelief. “No way, that thing is falling apart!”

“I’ve been to places way worse than this, trust me, this house is in great condition,” Hongbin said, already taking out his camera to get a few shots from the outside structure. “Besides, you’re the one who asked to come along, you can go home if you—”

“I’m not going home, I’m staying with you,” Wonshik replied in that vaguely whiny voice that betrayed how scared he was, but that at the same time spoke volumes of his wish to understand Hongbin’s hobby better.

Urban exploration was not for everyone, and that was fact - Hongbin had, at that point, been to all kinds of places, from abandoned factories, to old warehouses, to empty hospitals and doomed hotels. During the years he’d been doing it, he had met a relatively large amount of people who ran in those circles, and while most of them enjoyed exploring mostly for the thrill of it, curiosity and a sense of adventure, Hongbin did it because he saw the beauty in places long abandoned, long forgotten. Photography had been a passion of his before he ever even knew what urban exploration was, and once he joined both of those two things— It all fell into place.

His best work came from exploring such locations. He loved trying to guess the story of those places, to give each picture he captured a meaning, to try and evoke the feelings he himself felt while walking those crumbling halls.

Raising his camera and adjusting the focus, Hongbin snapped the first picture, the sound of the shutter breaking the silence of the otherwise quiet street.

“What if there’s a hobo living in there?” Wonshik asked in a worried whisper, and Hongbin chuckled at his boyfriend’s concern.

“Then we’ll apologize and leave,” Hongbin simply said, changing the angle of the camera to snap the second picture of the night. “And if they try to cause any trouble I have a taser.”

“...You have a taser,” Wonshik echoed, then scoffed. “Well. That’s hot.”

Hongbin couldn’t help but snort at that.

Hongbin stepped around the house, only so he could get a different angle, a little more of the side of the structure, and Wonshik followed him. “Are you _sure_ you want to go in there?”

“If you’re scared you can wait for me outside, I don’t think I’ll take very long,” Hongbin idly answered as he took a couple of pictures. “It’s a small house, I’m guessing only two bedrooms. There's no attic judging from the distance between the second-floor windows to the roof, and I don’t think there’s a basement either.”

“You can tell only from looking at it from the outside?” Wonshik sounded genuinely impressed.

Hongbin gave him a half grin. “I told you I’ve been to many abandoned houses.” He lowered his camera and turned to Wonshik. “Ready to go inside or will you wait out here after all?”

Wonshik made a strangled noise in his throat and clung to Hongbin’s middle like a frightened child, causing Hongbin to laugh again.

Taking his reluctant boyfriend by the hand, Hongbin led the way down through the somehow still standing gates and up the stone path to the front door, overgrown grass brushing their legs up to their knees as they walked. Wonshik kept making faces at their surroundings, likely for fearing a massive army of bugs to jump out and attack him, so Hongbin, being the good boyfriend he was, moved faster to get that unsavory part over and done with.

Wonshik breathed out a loud sigh of relief once they reached the door, already open - courtesy of some previous invader who didn’t have the finesse of searching for an alternate route and just busted the lock, the wood next to it splintered and the door handle nowhere in sight.

Hongbin pushed the door open without a second thought, Wonshik flinching behind him as if expecting trouble, but nothing came from the house’s interior other than silence. Hongbin raised his camera again to take a picture of the living room from that perspective, the perspective of a visitor, and after taking the shot he stepped inside. The old floorboards creaked under his weight, the sound eerie in the silent residence, echoing on the bare walls.

There was not much left inside, likely the work of looters and other explorers who had the habit of collecting souvenirs from the locations they visited. All that was left in the living room was a broken down chair on one corner, an old couch ripped in several spots, its wire springs poking out, and a dirty, stained blanket near the entrance.

“I know I asked this already, but now that we’re in here I have to ask again: are you sure about this?” Wonshik asked, looking around suspiciously, nose scrunched up in distaste. “It smells like wet moldy ass in here.”

“I am not going to ask how you know what a wet moldy ass smells like,” Hongbin teased, snapping a few pictures of the living room and its very few objects, walking around the place unbothered by the dust or the smell or the lack of light. He’d been to worse places. He turned back to face Wonshik after taking a picture of an interesting looking crack on the ceiling. “You really can wait outside if you want, I won’t be long.”

“I’m not leaving you alone in here, no way,” Wonshik declared and rushed to stand next to Hongbin again, moving from where he’d been awkwardly standing in the doorway. Hongbin laughed, placing a hard kiss on Wonshik’s cheek.

“Just stay close to me, then,” he said, immediately feeling Wonshik grip the back of his shirt. Hongbin chuckled, infinitely fond. “That works.”

Hongbin led them to the first door he saw downstairs, which turned out to be a small guest bathroom, with a dirty sink, even dirtier toilet, and a tight little shower stall. The mirror that once sat above the sink was broken, the cabinet door close to falling off. Hongbin took a few pictures, the broken cabinet and cracked tiles on the walls the main objects of his focus, before he left the tiny bathroom and guided Wonshik down the hallway to the kitchen. The graffiti on the walls held no interest to him, most of them being uninspired acts of mindless vandalism that consisted of curse words and nothing else. Boring.

The kitchen was in no better shape than what he’d seen in the previous rooms, most counters and cabinets broken and missing their doors, the wall stained where the fridge and stove used to be, water stains on the corners. Hongbin sighed, wistful; it was a shame a house like that was in such disarray, he thought. The architecture was solid, the interior considerably sizeable despite it not being a big house, and he could see it being a real home if only it had been treated right. Wonshik seemed to read his thoughts, for he wrapped his arms around his waist and rested his chin on his shoulder.

“If this place wasn’t so creepy, it wouldn’t be bad a place to live in, don’t you think?”

Hongbin turned his head slightly, just so he could look at his boyfriend. “You know, if it’s haunted or if a murder happened here, the price would be—”

“Nope,” Wonshik said and immediately shook his head, causing Hongbin to laugh again. “We’re not living in a haunted murder house, no way.”

“The mold is the real deal-breaker for me,” Hongbin said, vaguely pointing towards the stains on the wall. Contradicting himself, he went right ahead and took a picture of the dark mold spots. “Good for the aesthetic, bad for the lungs.”

Hongbin turned back around just in time to stop Wonshik from touching a rusty old nail left behind on top of a counter, slapping his hand away. “A-ah, what was that for!?”

“You can’t go touching stuff like this,” Hongbin said, holding Wonshik’s hand if only to keep him from touching anything else. “You don’t know where it’s been.”

“It’s just a nail.”

“Yes, but what if, say, a homeless man wandered in here right after taking a piss and not washing his hands and touched that nail right there?”

Wonshik made a face. “Yeah, got it.”

Hongbin hummed, and added to just to make sure, “Besides, there’s always the risk of some creepy-crawlies hiding under stuff.”

That did the trick, judging from the horror in Wonshik’s eyes.

Hongbin was ready to leave, considering that room unworthy of more pictures, but stopped once he caught a glimpse of something written inside a busted cabinet. Hongbin narrowed his eyes, intrigued, and moved away from Wonshik to get a closer look, camera ready to snap a picture. It was different from the other graffiti words he’d seen so far, this time a complete sentence that contained no swear words.

 

_I AM UPSTAIRS_

 

Frowning, Hongbin snapped a picture of the sentence just as Wonshik leaned over his shoulder to read it as well.

“Alright, that’s creepy as fuck, we should get out of here, babe.”

Hongbin rolled his eyes and turned around to peck his boyfriend on the lips. “Someone was probably just playing a prank, or letting their friends know where they were if they decided to meet here for whatever reason. It’s fine.”

“I don’t know, I have the weirdest feeling,” Wonshik complained, but let Hongbin guide him by the hand towards the hallway where they’d come from.

“Just words on a wall, Shikkie,” Hongbin said, pulling Wonshik by the hand back to the living room where the stairs to the second floor were located. “They can’t hurt you.”

“Yeah, but what about whoever wrote those words in the first place?”

“I have a taser.”

“What if they have a _gun?”_ Wonshik asked in an urgent whisper. “What if we just waltzed into some sort of druggie hangout!?”

“Druggies tend to be louder than—” Hongbin stopped to listen for a moment, just to add to the impact, “—absolutely nothing. Just relax, I’ll protect you.”

Wonshik groaned. “If we run right into the arms of a meth-head, this relationship is over.”

“Why? Will you leave me for the meth-head?”

Wonshik whined this time, tapping his feet on the floor nervously. “It’s not funny!”

“It sort of is,” Hongbin said, giggling, only stopping to take a picture of the staircase before making his ascent to the second floor. “Come on, the faster we’re done exploring the faster we can go home.”

That was enough to get Wonshik to follow him up the stairs, scurrying after him like the scaredy-cat he was. Upon reaching the landing, Hongbin’s eyes were immediately drawn to the wall to his right, where a second message was written in the same black ink as the one in the kitchen.

 

_I AM WAITING_

 

“Fuck no,” Wonshik declared the moment he saw the words, already turning around to bolt but Hongbin held him from the back of his collar.

“Don’t run on the stairs, they’re old and might break if you step too hard,” Hongbin warned him. “You can wait outside if you want, just do it carefully.”

“Are you really not worried at all!?” Wonshik questioned, eyes wide as saucers.

Hongbin shrugged. “Not really. It’s not even the creepiest messages I’ve seen written on the walls.”

Wonshik took a deep breath, puffing out his chest, and seemingly gathering his courage, stomped his way forward and past Hongbin, taking the lead. “Then I guess I’ll have to be worried for both of us and keep your reckless ass safe.”

Hongbin let out an impressed chuckle, raising his camera on an impulse to take a picture of Wonshik. “Shik?”

Wonshik looked back at him, and at that instant Hongbin snapped the photo, the flash blinding them both for a second. “What was that for?”

“Just immortalizing your moment of bravery,” Hongbin said teasingly, giving Wonshik a quick kiss on the cheek before moving past him to keep exploring. “Come on, just three more rooms.”

“Three?” Wonshik was obviously puzzled, considering the hallway only had two doors, one on each side.

“I’m assuming one of the bedrooms has an ensuite.”

“Oh.”

Grabbing Wonshik’s hand to give his boyfriend some moral support, Hongbin guided him to the door on his left first, revealing a room that seemed to have been used as a small study or office at some point, judging from the broken pair of armchairs against the far wall, the remnants of books and paper on the floor and an old-looking shelf, empty of any contents. Hongbin promptly began taking pictures, finding that room the most interesting so far, even crouching down to try to read what the scattered pages said without having to touch any of it.

“Uh, Bean?” Wonshik called, and Hongbin looked up to find his boyfriend pointing to another message written on the wall next to the door.

 

_NOT HERE_

 

“As I thought, the trail leads to the main bedroom,” Hongbin mused, standing up from his crouch. “Let’s go.”

“Home?”

“Nice try.”

Wonshik whimpered pitifully and Hongbin chuckled as he crossed the hallway to enter the last room in the house, pushing the door open with a loud _creeeeak_. Hongbin rolled his eyes at how horror movie cliche that sound was.

The bedroom was as run-down as the rest of the house - old furniture scattered around, a bedframe empty of a mattress, a drawer without any actual drawers. Hongbin went in without hesitation, taking pictures of the things he found to be good enough, Wonshik lingering behind just inside the doorframe.

Once he turned to the door that led to the ensuite, he found the next message written in large letters over the chipped old white paint.

 

_I AM HERE_

 

“Babe, do _not_ go in there,” Wonshik said the moment Hongbin took a step forward, causing him to stop and regard him. “I mean it, don’t go in there.”

“There’s nothing there, I’m telling you this is a prank.”

“What if it isn’t!?”

“Then I have a taser.”

“Enough with the taser!”

Hongbin disregarded Wonshik’s concern with a nonchalant shrug and continued moving towards the bathroom. He could feel Wonshik holding his breath from the entrance, could feel his eyes on his back, and that was making him more nervous than those messages on the walls did, like Wonshik’s concern was bleeding into the air and he was breathing it all in. Secondhand anxiety. No real danger. Just secondhand anxiety.

Carefully, Hongbin placed a hand on the doorknob, staying still for a second just to make sure he couldn’t hear anything from inside. He couldn’t. After one last deep breath, Hongbin slowly turned the doorknob, the door opening with a muffled _click_.

The moment he pushed it open he let out a loud yelp and jumped back, Wonshik rushing to his side to help fight whatever it was, but before his boyfriend could even reach him Hongbin was already doubling over himself with laughter.

“I told you it was a prank!” he said, pointing at the full body mirror placed strategically in front of the door, the word ‘BOO!’ written on it in that same back ink.

Wonshik expression turned sullen, a pout forming in his lips. “Can we please go home now?”

Hongbin decided that he’d had enough too, asking for five minutes to take pictures of the bathroom and finishing off the night with a picture of the damn mirror, of his and Wonshik’s reflection; it had been Wonshik’s first experience with urban exploration after all. He wanted something to remember it by.

Satisfied, the couple left, Hongbin teasing Wonshik endlessly for how scared he’d been with the messages.

It would be only later, when Hongbin was going over the pictures he’d taken, that he would spot something that shouldn’t be there - on the picture he’d taken of Wonshik in the hallway on the second floor, he could see it very clearly against the black of his boyfriend’s shirt.

There was a pale hand resting on Wonshik’s shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/ghostlike91) | [tumblr](https://ghostlike91.tumblr.com/) | [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/ghostlike) | [ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/ghostlike91)


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